Dyballa, Cindy

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45THE ROLE OF WATER CONSERVATION IN WATERSHEDMANAGEMENTCindy DyballaU.S. Bureau of Reclamation/Department of the InteriorINTRODUCTIONWater conservation measures, have been shown to providemany benefits for water  suppliers, water users, and theircommunities.  The major benefits include lower waterdelivery costs, lower water supply treatment costs,stretching wastewater treatment capacity, and delayingexpense of new water supplies.Water conservation, both urban and agricultural, can alsobe a tool to help meet watershed or river basin goals thatare agreed to by all major parties in a watershed.  Theseagreed-upon goals can include balancing water supply forall uses, better flood control, instream flows forenvironmental benefit, or water quality improvement.A watershed based approach is becoming more popular insettling disputes about water use and water quality in riverbasins, particularly in the west.  The watershed approachinvolves sitting all interested parties down, agreeing ongoals, and together developing strategies to meet them.Communities increasingly find themselves to be onestakeholder in a watershed process, in partnership withother stakeholders, including upstream agriculture andenvironmental interests.Some urban water suppliers have undertaken waterconservation studies within the context of integratedresources planning for water supply and wastewaterservices for their community.  Some agricultural waterusers have considered water conservation as a means tostretch limited water supplies or meet environmental goals.In some river basins, communities have taken the nextstep: participating in a watershed planning effort that setsagreed upon goals and considers the role of waterconservation, as well as other tools, in meeting the needsof the entire watershed or river basin.The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its sister bureaus inthe Department of the Interior have been involved as apartner in a number of watershed efforts that apply waterconservation measures, both urban and agricultural, tohelp meet agreed upon watershed goals.  Five casesinvolving the Bureau of Reclamation are described here:California’s San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San JoaquinDelta, the Yakima River Basin, the Platte River, theColorado River basin, and the lowest stretch of theColorado.California’s Bay DeltaIn California’s San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-SanJoaquin Delta, the competing demands of endangeredspecies and increasing water supply needs (urban andagricultural) have pushed this ecosystem to the brink, andsent fisheries populations crashing. The federalgovernment and the state of California organized a team ofstate and federal agencies, including Reclamation andother Interior bureaus and implemented a cooperativeapproach to address this problem.  CalFed has proposed aplan to restore the fragile environment of the Bay andDelta and to  assure stable, high quality water supplies forCalifornia cities and agriculture.The December 1998 release of this proposed planhighlights the role of water conservation.  In all thealternatives considered in the CalFed process, waterconservation, both urban and agricultural, is built in.  Themulti-year $4.4 billion plan for Bay-Delta restorationproposes significant efforts ($1.8 billion) in waterconservation, both urban and agricultural, and waterrecycling, as well as a baseline level of water useefficiency as a condition for permitting new surfacestorage pro jects.Some parts of this proposal, including the waterconservation part, are controversial.  Environmentalgroups wonder if the plan underestimates the contributionof water conservation to long-term reliable water supply.Agricultural groups are concerned about reliability ofsavings, costs of instituting measures, and the waterconservation strings attached to new offstream storage46facilities.  Still, this proposal represents a major advancefor the acceptance of water conservation as a tool inwatershed management and restoration.Yakima River BasinIrrigation, instream flow needs for anadramous fish, andwater for future development of the Yakima IndianReservation all compete for available water supplies in thisriver basin.  Several years of drought dramatized theproblem: in 1994, some irrigation water rights holdersreceived only 37 percent of their entitlement, whilechinook salmon and steelhead populations were dropping.Phase 2 of the Yakima River Basin Enhancement Pro ject,approved by Congress in October 1994, authorizedReclamation to address conflicting water needs in theYakima River Basin and to reduce water diversions.Voluntary implementation of water conservation measuresis a key component of the program, both improvingconveyance and distribution systems, and improving farmwater management.  Two thirds of the conserved waterwill be used to increase streamflows and supplementdrought needs.  The other third remains with the farm.The 1994 law also provides for target instream flows.A basin-wide conservation plan was completed in 1998,with goals to improve reliability of irrigation water  supply,improve water quality and wetland wildlife habitat, andimprove fish habitat by increasing instream flows. Aconservation advisory group formulated the basinconservation plan. Reclamation, the State of Washington,Yakima Indian Nation, Bonneville Power Administration,Yakima River Watershed Council and irrigation groups allparticipated. Individual irrigation districts are developingtheir own conservation plans within this framework.The project cost shares development of water conservationplans, feasibility investigations of conservation measures,and design, implementation and evaluation of conservationmeasures.  In  FY1998, $8 .5 million in federal, and $17 .5million in state, funds were available.Colorado River BasinThe Colorado River basin has long been plagued by highsalinity levels, exceeding water quality standards, causingeconomic damage to agriculture, and creating problemswith the downstream Mexican government. River water iswithdrawn, used, and re turned to the river multiple timesalong its length, increasing salinity along the way.  A 1974compact with 7 states and the U.S. Department of theInterior created the interagency Colorado Salinity ControlProgram.  The program was revamped in 1995 to allow a new basin-wide approach to salinity control, rather than the specificproject construction authorizations of before. It alsobrought in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and itsonfarm capabilities.To meet water quality standards for salinity in 3downstream locations near the Mexican border, theprogram now offers cost sharing for water managementprojects (including public and private, structural andnonstructural), that can most cost-effectively prevent saltfrom entering the river.  This allows a much wider rangeof salinity control alternatives than before. Onfarm andsystemwide water efficiency improvements have ratedhigh in this approach, as they promise high salinityreductions for less cost.   The project selection processalso considers variations in risk, including reliability. Forexample, canal lining in different places yields verydifferent results in terms of salinity reductions, in part dueto natural geology and soils. The program now invests some $10-15 million each yearin agricultural water conservation measures, both on-farmand systemwide.  Coordinated projects include measuressuch as piping existing laterals to gain pressure, andlinking to on-farm pressurized sprinklers, with watersavings approaching 50 percent and correspondingreductions in return flows and salinity control.Platte RiverThe Platte River Basin is the scene of a precedent-settingcooperative agreement for recovery of Platte Riverendangered species, signed in July 1997 by the Secretaryof the Interior and the Governors of 3 states: Wyoming,Colorado and Nebraska.  The agreement included acommitment to examine water conservation opportunitiesthat may help endangered species recovery by increasingstreamflow or returning water supply to critical habitat.Other aspects of the project look at other watermanagement approaches, environmental resourcesmonitoring,  and habitat protection.The governance committee, comprised of 3 states, Interior,water users and environmental groups, is undertaking abasin wide study of water conservation and supplyaugmentation opportunities.  They selected a contractor in47early 1999.  The next step is to develop criteria forselecting among the many water conservation and supplyaugmentation alternatives.At the same time, the federal government has begun anenvironmental impact statement on species recoveryalternatives.  This study will also  address the role of waterconservation as a fundamental part of the alternatives forbetter managing streamflow.  The outcome of these studies regarding the relativecontribution that water conservation can p lay in thisparticular situation is not yet known.  But building waterconservation into the earliest stages of a river basinmanagement process is an exciting trend.Lower Colorado River: San Diego/Imperial IrrigationDistrictsA very specific example of the potential role of waterconservation in river basin management is at thedownstream end of the lower Colorado River.  A tentativewater transfer agreement was announced in Decemberbetween Interior and two southern California irrigationdistricts.  It is one key element in a plan to transfer asmuch as 200,000 acre feet a year of water from ImperialValley farmers to the coastal city of San Diego.  The waterto be transferred would be made available through avariety of water conservation measures, including liningdistribution canals, on-farm conservation improvements,and groundwater conjunctive use.  This single, highly complex, water transfer cansignificantly reduce California’s dependence on ColoradoRiver water, freeing the water for other upstream uses. Butto work, many other institutional pieces must fall in place.Other elements of the plan include agreements with SanDiego to buy the water, Metropolitan Water District tomove the water, and Sta te of California to fund canallining.While this arrangement primarily benefits water supply, itmay also have a positive impact on the health of the lowerriver basin.  Environmental groups such as the SouthwestCenter for Biological Diversity, a watchdog ofsouthwestern endangered species, believe any shift in thelower river’s water use patterns can help restore theColorado River Delta, where the river ends at the Gulf ofCalifornia on the Mexican border.  Delta habitat hasdramatically been reduced in acreage and quality over theyears as upstream water uses have increased.  The transferis not likely to have a significant effect on severalendangered species of fish in the lower Colorado.ISSUES TO CONSIDERCommunities and other stakeholders in a watershedpartnership can introduce the concept of waterconservation as a tool for resolving watershed issues.When  doing  so,  several  issues  are  worthy  of attention: 1)  attitudes   toward   water   conservation;  2) how theinstitutions  in  a  river  basin  address  conservation;  3)  estimating    savings    from   water   conservation;  4)environmental effects; and 5) economics of conservationmeasures.  Squarely addressing these issues early in thewatershed process can increase the effectiveness of waterconservation as a tool in a particular watershed or riverbasin.Attitudes Toward Water Conservation Attitudes can play a great role in whether waterconservation is taken seriously as a potential tool. Ask if all the water users in a river basin accept waterefficiency as a reliable tool for improved watershedmanagement, rather than a potential obstacle.  Consideralso whether those designing comprehensive watershedand river basin programs understand water conservation’spotential and consider it useful.How the Institutions Address Water ConservationThe institutional climate in which water conservationmeasures are undertaken varies by state.  In many westernstates, water rights laws can reduce the effectiveness ofsome types of water conservation measures.  On the otherhand, some states have recognized, and institutionalized,the interaction between municipal water conservation andstreamflow.  For example, the states of Oregon andMassachusetts both have programs requiring individualmunicipal water conservation plans within a river basin.Watershed partners will want to address how the splitbetween state water management and water qualityprograms is addressed  in their watershed.  They will alsowant to explore whether there is a potential for effects onindividual water rights, and if so what adjustments can bemade.48Estimating  Savings from Water ConservationEven the experts disagree on how reliably we can predictthe long-term effects of water conservation measures andthe range of potential savings.  In a drought prone climate,concern about reliability may result in very conservativeestimates.  Assumptions about how much waterconservation may be required may result in overestimates.In a given watershed , the success of water conservation asa tool in watershed protection depends on whether thegroup is being realistic about how much water savings canbe achieved, the possible range of results, and the specificassumptions behind the estimates.Environmental Effects of Water ConservationThe localized environmental effects of a particular waterconservation measure may well be different from thegeneral benefits to the watershed.  The group shouldconsider how the watershed plan will account for theunintended negative consequences of specific waterconservation measures, for example the loss of wetlandsthat were first created by agricultural drainage.  Inaddition, some water conservation measures may havesignificant third party effects that must be addressed  inorder for the watershed plan to succeed.The Economics of Water Conservation ImplementationAs with any other watershed  protection measure, thevarious stakeho lders in the process must perceive that thecosts of the measures are spread fairly.  The group mayneed to wrestle with such issues as who bears the cost ofwater conservation measures in a  river basin if the benefitis basin wide, and whether the relative costs of all thepotential water conservation measures, both urban andagricultural, are considered.CONCLUSIONWater conservation can be a powerful tool in watershedmanagement. The examples described earlier are notisolated incidents.  Across the country, especially in theWest, cooperative watershed based approaches toresolving water supply and environmental issues areincreasingly turning to water conservation as a tool to meetwatershed goals.  Success in applying water conservationas a watershed protection tool is more likely if a numberof issues are considered at the beginning of the watershedmanagement process, and if all interested parties areconsulted.  In many situations, water conservation can make asignificant contribution to reso lving watershed issues.Consideration of the role of water conservation should bebuilt in up front into the watershed planning process.NOTE:  The opinions expressed here are solely those ofthe author and do not represent the views of the U.S.Bureau of Reclamation or the Department of the Interior.

The Role of Water Conservation in Watershed Management

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The Role of Water Conservation in Watershed Management

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